Minimum Wage

The ongoing effort by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to loudly decry the perceived low minimum wage established in various states and cities has reached a frenzied pitch.  We are seeing protests across the country to raise it to $15 and it has even been successful in a few localities.  We see the news covering these events with interviews of people who demand that they need $15 because it's a "living wage".  We see all the usual suspects supporting these protests which sometimes morph to a general protest about everything....racism, pipelines, Islamophobia, Homophobia, too much sugar, misogyny, and everything else that someone might not like.  I sometimes yearn for the old days when we just protested an unjust and illadvised war.  To listen to some of these protesters, you'd think we live in the worst, most repressive country in the world.  But I digress.  There was one of these nationwide protests yesterday and here in San Diego we had our own little taste of it.  This little snippet of video is from a year ago but you get the idea.  The union thugs have latched onto this idea and the useful idiots in local government and media are pumping them up.  Behold...

But as in all things (at least in a country that embraces capitalism and market forces) there can be unintended consequences.  Check out this article from Forbes.  I hate say I told you so, but...

And here's the visual.  The article lays many of the ramifications and results, but this is a pretty good picture.  

So this subject is just another example of an idealistic desire trumping logic and economics.  Simply put, a business is in business to make money.  When it comes to salaries, it's a numbers game.  Wage requirements drive number of employees (and benefits).  And let's face it, minimum wage jobs are designed to be entry level jobs.  They get people started in the workforce and they move on.  Oh, I get that there are some who languish in minimum wage jobs for longer than they should, but those are the exception, not the rule.  In this and many, many other aspects of work life, technology is rapidly impacting our workers.  Education and determination are the keys.  Before Trump's election I was fearful that so many had decided that they were owed a place in the world.  I now have a glimmer of hope that these kinds of folly will be seen for what they are.  It's just a glimmer, but it's there.